Member Reviews
This was such a fun who-done-it.
Eve, a journalist, gets an assignment to travel the English countryside to write the obituary for Bernard Fitzpatrick, a famous cellist. Once she gets there and starts interviewing people, the police change the cause of death to murder. Now Eve feels she now needs to investigate the murder as well as gather information for the obituary.
At first glance, this sleepy small town seems like the last place a murder would take place. But after Eve starts talking to the townspeople, she realizes that that it could be any number of people. As Eve interviews more people, she realizes that there were multiple people with motive and opportunity. The exciting ending finally reveals the killer.
This was a fast paced cozy mystery that I would highly recommend.
Mystery on Hidden Lane is the first in a series of books featuring Eve Mallow, an obituary writer. She is divorced from her patronising husband, mother to twins and owner of a dachshund called Gus. While researching the life of Bernard Fitzpatrick, a famous musician she discovers he was murdered and becomes involved in investigating the crime. This book spends some time setting the scene for future novels but is still good fun with an engaging storyline.
Murder mystery, easy listen audiobook. Eve finds herself spending a short time in a small English village where she finds herself writing an obituary for a murdered musician. In her opinion it seems the Police can’t do the job of finding the culprit. So in she jumps. Some of the villagers have secrets to hide, and at least one is a murderer. I have to say Eve, strong minded as she is, needs to put her former husband in his place. That is, the bin, and to stop taking his texts and calls. But just maybe this village life will allow her to do just that. Thank you to Bookouture Audio and NetGalley for the audio ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.
This doesn’t happen often to me, but I found this book really hard to follow, it didn’t really grab my attention so I never knew what was going on! So much so I had to stop listening! I’m sorry, but not one for me.
In this cozy mystery, Eve is an obituary writer who finds herself investigating the murder of the person she's writing an obituary for. It makes for a fun, clean read, with well developed characters and kept me guessing.
Thank you to Netgalley for the audiobook version of this book.
Mystery on Hidden Lane by Clare Chase and narrated by Eilidh Beaton is the first book in the new Eve Mallow Mystery series and I loved listening to this audiobook. The Narrator Eilidh Beaton was excellent and made this book come to life. It was an utterly gripping cozy mystery novel and I loved it. I am so glad I had a chance to listen to this book by Clare as I have enjoyed reading her other books and if you love cozy mystery novels this is an excellent author for these. She is Great!
Mystery on Hidden Lane (Eve Mallow Mystery #1)
by Clare Chase, narrated Eilidh Beaton
Obituary writer Eve Mallow loves writing obituaries and she puts her all into doing a good job at writing them. She'd work full time at writing obituaries if she could but must supplement her income with a part time job since her husband of decades dumped her in the recent past. Still, her ex tries to keep Eve on a short leash, trying to gaslight her into thinking she can't take care of herself, is lost without him, and so on. There are already several more books written in this series and someday I hope to find that the rotten ex meets a bad end.
When the ex dumped her he did one wonderful thing. He presented Eve with a dachshund who is named Gus, and since I have my own little rescue dachshund, Pip, I delight in the fact that Gus is very much a character in this story. What a cutie, I never knew what a delight and little terror a dachshund can be and Gus represents his breed very well.
This is very much a cozy as Eve travels to a quaint little English village where all kinds of things that happen in quaint little English villages happen. Eve is very much a gossip although she does try to keep her secrets while digging deep among the village folk for gossip she can use. The man whose obituary she is writing apparently has been murdered and Eve hears something that sets her on the case. Staying in a quaint cottage, surrounded by ghost stories and gossipy village folk, Eve is in her element. Everyone gossips here and Eve shares her "who might be the murderer" ideas with everyone else and asks them their opinions. All is well though when gossip is usually served with delicious sounding homemade desserts.
I'm glad there are already more books in this series available. I think Eve has found her people and her place in life now that the ex has blown up her old life. I have a feeling there will be a lot more murderous happenings in this quaint little English village. Eilidh Beaton, who has an entire library of narrated books under her belt, does a fine job with the narration of this story.
Thank you to Bookouture Audio and NetGalley for this ARC
Mystery on Hidden Lane is thirst of the Eve Mallow mysteries, a series that is longer than I realized when I picked this audiobook up at NetGalley. Eve is an obituary writer (think feature length obituaries for magazines), which is a career I haven’t run into before. She also holds a job at a school to supplement her income, but she’s taken a small break from that to head off to the small village of Saxford St Peter to research recently deceased cellist, Bernard Fitzpatrick. On the day of her arrival, however, the police release news that the man had been murdered.
Turns out Eve is in the perfect position to investigate the case, especially when she thinks the detective in charge of the case is incompetent. Eve makes a good amateur sleuth. She’s naturally curious and has practice putting people at ease as she pumps them for information. She’s observant and does her research on both her subject and those around him. Eve also has an adorable little dachshund, Gus, who goes most everywhere with her and who she talks to regularly, which I can relate to. She fits easily and quickly into village life.
The mystery is well done. There are a lot of secrets being hidden in the town and Eve has several potential suspects. I was surprised by who the killer turned out to be.
I listened to the audio and the narrator did a good job. She brought out Eve’s emotions and thoughts well and kept the other characters. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and this one was fine, the narrator stayed out of the story’s way, if that makes sense. I’ll probably pick up the next one on audio at some point.
I chose this book as a listen now audiobook on NetGalley not realizing that it was the first of a series nor that it was released 4 years ago. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this listen. Unfortunately, this was a miss for me. It’s described as a cozy mystery and while there is a mystery and the setting is cozy, the story failed to grab me.
Eve is an obituary writer who arrives in a quaint town for 10 days to interview those who knew a recently deceased famous cellist. Once she arrives, she finds thar he has been murdered and takes this as an opportunity to become an amateur detective. As far fetched as that is, I continued but there were just too many characters to keep track of, too many side stories and it was just slow. It took so long for the conclusion and reveal of the murderer that by the time we got there I didn’t care.
If you’re looking for a new series to start this is the one. It is an amazing start to a wonderful series. It’s filled with twist, turns, suspense, and murder.
Mystery on Hidden Lane by Clare Chase. The first in the Eve Mallow mysteries. The author has released 13 in this series so far as well as other series so she is a prolific writer. Thank you to NetGalley for my audio book. The narrator used various accents, including a believable American accent, to narrate the different characters.
Eve Mallow is a celebrity obituary writer based in London. She gets sent by a music magazine to the small village of Saxford St Peter where the celebrated cellist Bernard Fitzpatrick has recently passed away to get the locals thoughts on him. While there it is revealed that he didn’t die of natural causes, he was murdered.
Eve is a bit of a busy body and starts snooping around with the locals to find out who murdered Bernard. She has her little dachshund Gus with her and she talks about her various theories with him while they go walking on the beach. Before long another body is found.
While Eve is interviewing people for her column, she finds out that there are plenty of possible suspects as Bernard was not well liked.
I love the small village vibe of the locals who gather at the pub; the pink-haired baker who makes delicious sounding cakes; and the gossipy café owner who knows everything that happens in town.
This is a good cozy mystery. I was disappointed and confused to see it was actually published 4 yrs ago.
Thanks for the opportunity to listen to this book.
I believe this is the first I’ve read of this author.
In fact, this is the first book in a new series…BUT, it looks like the book was released a few years ago.
Since I just received the ARC from NetGalley, I’m assuming the audiobook is being released now.
That being said, this seems to be a good start for the series with lots of character building. My problem was that I seemed to keep drifting off at times, and I think it was due to the large amount of background and characters being introduced. Therefore, I was overloaded a bit. But again, as this is the first in a new series, there is a reason for this!
That being said, Eve is the FMC. She is a part-time obituary writer for a local paper, and she’s been assigned to cover the story of a well known Cellist who just passed…in another part of the UK. So she travels there from London to write the story…but when she arrives, she finds out that he did not just die, he was MURDERED!
As she begins to interview people to find out about his LIFE, she realizes that the locals are more apt to give her information about his death! 😮
And so, she now morphs into an amateur sleuth.
It was definitely entertaining, and I’d read another in the series to see how it goes on from here! Interested to hear others thought on this one as well!
3 1/2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 for me, rounded up to 4!
#MysteryOnHiddenLane (Eve Mallow Mysteries #1) by #ClareChase and narrated by #ElidhBeaton (with a heavy British accent) ! 😬
Thanks to #NetGalley and #BookoutureAudio for an ARC of the audiobook. I think it may have been released already? Not sure… I know the book was released in 2020.
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Seasoned obituary writer Eve Mallow has a new assignment: to tell the life story of famed musician Bernard Fitzpatrick. A chance to spend a few days in the sweet Suffolk village of Saxford St Peter, walking the country lanes with her beloved dachshund Gus and meeting new people sounds like a dream. On the day she arrives, news breaks that the charismatic cellist was murdered. As Eve starts to interview Bernard’s friends and colleagues, she finds that he’d ruffled a few feathers. In fact, from the keepers of the Cross Keys Inn to his own staff at High House, there’s barely a person in town who doesn’t have some reason to hate him. Eve hoped Saxford St Peter would be the perfect escape from her busy city life. When a second body is found, Eve becomes certain that one of the people she’s met must be the murderer.
This is the first in a new series & the audiobook took me back to the beginning. If you love cosy mysteries & murders then this will be right up your street. The narrator brought the book to life & made me fall for the series once again. I warmed to Eve immediately & loved that she was moving on with her life even if Ian was trying to undermine her confidence.
I voluntarily listened and reviewed a special copy of this book; all thoughts and opinions are my own